real tenochtitlan

The second stop on the taco tour took me to Real Tenochtitlan. Dining with me were David, a blue-eyed hunk of meat that just moved back from San Francisco, and Julia, a lovely lady who is way too good for her boyfriend……me.

First, let’s talk about the restaurant. Real Tenochtitlan is like a nice, cute girl with no personality who thinks she’s upper class when she’s clearly not. The place has the feel, look, and prices of a fine Mexican restaurant. Unfortunately, the food does not follow through. This shows in of all of the ancillary things I tried. They provide complimentary chips (served in one of Madonna’s cone bra inserts) and two types of salsa. Both the salsa verde and salsa rojo lack spice and are too sweet for my liking. The tacos came with rice and beans. Although the beans look nice in the mini taco salad hard tortilla in which they are served, they are bland and had an Elmer’s glue consistency. The rice tastes like paper.

The tacos themselves are pretty good. The carne asada tacos are very tender. While they taste like a strip steak and are cooked well, they lack grill flavor. The al pastor tacos are cooked with onions and pineapple. They adobo marinade is tasty, but the tacos lack the spice I like.

I have some issues with the taco menu. First, you cannot order the tacos a la carte. You can only order them as a taco dinner, which is three tacos, rice and beans. Also, you cannot mix and match your order. You can only have three carne asada, al pastor, pollo, or fish tacos. With only four types of tacos on the menu, and no vegetarian options, I would like to see a larger selection of tacos.

Julia rated Real Tenochtitlan exactly the same as I did, since she’s my property and is forced to have the same opinion as me. David thought this was Quesadilla Tour, so nobody cares what he thinks. Oh, for what it’s worth, the horchata is awesome!

Here’s the breakdown of our visit:

Location: 2451 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL (Logan Square)

Tourists: Josh, Julia, David

Tacos sampled: carne asada, al pastor (also serve chicken and fish, which we did not try)

Toppings: onions, cilantro

Salsa: salsa verde, salsa roja

Extras: chips

Tortillas: corn

Atmosphere: Lots of tables (though not many people dining). Clean and somewhat sterile. Good service.